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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25979947">Letters Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rurousha/pseuds/rurousha'>rurousha</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:14:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,063</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25979947</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rurousha/pseuds/rurousha</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Voltron sent videos to Earth for their families and the whole world.  But someone deserved a more private goodbye.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adam &amp; Shiro (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Letters Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adam dropped his bag near the entrance to his apartment and sighed.  It had been a long day.  Week.  Month.  The garrison command had initially tried to keep the return of Sam Holt and the news he brought secret, but that hadn’t lasted long.  The entire garrison had seen the videos about Voltron within days of Sam’s return and the whole world just days after that.  Adam suspected Sam himself was the one to leak the videos.</p><p>There was a knock at Adam’s door, and he drew his eyebrows together in annoyance.  Who just shows up unannounced?</p><p>He looked out the peephole and saw… no one.  Confused, Adam opened the door.  Immediately, Sam Holt himself pushed his way into Adam’s apartment.</p><p>“Let me in before anyone sees me,” Sam demanded.</p><p>“Professor Holt?”  Adam definitely wasn’t expecting him.  “You… you are in.”</p><p>“Good, good.  Those garrison stooges think they can keep me or my warning cooped up, they’ve got another thing coming.”  Sam pulled out some sort of handheld scanner and started waving it around Adam’s living room.</p><p>“Professor, what are you doing here?  What is that?”</p><p>“It detects long-range surveillance equipment.”</p><p>“What?  My home isn’t bugged, Professor.”</p><p>Sam came right up to Adam and swept the device around his general person.  Adam tried to not take that personally.</p><p>“No…” Sam agreed.  “It’s not.  You are Adam, correct?”</p><p>“Yes.  We’ve met before, Professor Holt.”</p><p>“We have?”</p><p>“Yes,” Adam stated as dryly as possible.  “Takashi and I had dinner with your family once.  You were… distracted.”</p><p>Shiro, Matt, and Sam had spent most of that evening excitedly discussing work and answering Katie’s questions.  Adam mostly interacted with Colleen as Keith had been home studying.</p><p>“Right, of course,” Sam agreed.  He clearly had no recollection of the dinner.  “Well, this is for you, then.”  He shoved a thumb drive into Adam’s hands.  “Took me much too long to convert that into something your computer could process without any of my so-called handlers seeing it.”</p><p>“What… what’s on it?” Adam asked, although he suspected the answer.</p><p>“It’s from Shiro,” Sam answered, then shrugged.  “I didn’t watch it.”</p><p>Without further discussion, Sam opened Adam’s front door, looked around the hall suspiciously, and left.</p><p>Trembling, Adam inserted the drive into his laptop, sat down, and watched the video.</p><p>~</p><p>Shiro gave a small sigh to visibly steel his nerves.  Then he looked at the camera.  </p><p>“Hi Adam.”  Shiro gave a tight smile, and Adam felt his heart stutter.  It hurt.  “It’s sure been a while, huh?”</p><p>Adam choked out a laugh.  What a stupid thing to say.  Yes, Takashi, it has been a while.  Because everyone thought you died years ago in space.</p><p>“That was stupid,” Shiro said.  “I don’t know why I said that.  I guess I just… I have these things I want to tell you, but I don’t know how to say them.  So I guess I’ll just… start.</p><p>“I’m sorry for how we left things years ago.  Not so much that they happened, but how.  I’m not being clear.”  Shiro shook his head at the camera.  “I don’t regret leaving on the Kerberos mission.  It’s what I needed to do, and this is where I need to be.  I’m glad for that.  And I’m glad that you realized and accepted what you needed from a relationship.  In the end, I think we both did what was best for ourselves, so even though it broke my heart, I can’t be sorry for that.  But I am sorry for how I left things.  I shouldn’t have just let you walk out without saying goodbye or left for space without telling you how much you meant to me.  I guess I thought it would be easier.  Cleaner.  I was wrong.”</p><p>Shiro sniffled a little, and Adam could see that he was willfully not crying.</p><p>“I miss you, Adam.  I hope you’re happy.  I hope you’re safe.  Because, Adam, it’s going to get bad, probably very soon.”  Shiro’s shoulders squared, and Adam had to avoid rolling his eyes at how much easier it was for Shiro to talk about Earth’s no-doubt eminent destruction than it was their breakup.  “The Galra will make it to Earth eventually, and Earth is going to have to fight back.  It’s not going to be easy, but Sam has the resources to give you a fighting chance.  We – Keith, Voltron, and I - will be there as soon as we can.”</p><p>Shiro smiled again, this time easily and genuinely.  Adam knew he was going to talk about Keith.</p><p>“You would be so proud of Keith.  Not just for what he’s accomplished, which has been a lot.  But at who he’s found.  He has friends, Adam.  We were always so worried about his being lonely, but he’s not anymore.  Remember when we used to take him to look at the stars, like his dad used to?  He still does that.  More so with Pidge or Lance, now, than me.  Not so much Hunk.  He gets vertigo.”</p><p>Shiro’s face was so fond that Adam felt his old fondness in return.  Shiro looked down and spotted his right forearm.</p><p>“Oh.  Right.  This.”  Shiro held up his mechanical arm so that it was more fully in the frame.  “You’re probably wondering about this.  It’s a prosthetic.  When I was first captured by the Galra on Kerberos, I was put in a – you know, that’s not important.  I was injured, but I guess I was still valuable because they replaced my arm.  It’s actually pretty cool.  It’s got a sword.”  Shiro activated something, and a purple blade made of energy enveloped his right hand.  He was grinning, the child.  He let it shut off.</p><p>“My memory of that time is actually still pretty shoddy.  I don’t know what else they did, but my symptoms haven’t progressed.  So that’s good.  They’ve got some pretty impressive medicine-science-magic here.  In space.</p><p>“There’s actually a lot of impressive things out here.  It’s beautiful and funny and humbling.  I wish you could see it.  I wish all of us could explore and see it all without all the… pain.”</p><p>Shiro collected himself.  “Sorry.  I didn’t mean for that to get dark at the end there.  It really is extraordinary out here, and we’re headed home as soon as we can.  Keep your eyes open, Adam.  Be safe.”</p><p>Then Shiro leaned forward and turned off the camera.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay, so it actually be Shiro's clone making this video, so it probably wouldn't have ever happened.  But it needed to.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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